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Word of the bathroom incident spread immediately. Wherever the three went, campers pointed at Percy and murmured something about toilet water. Or maybe they were just staring at Annabeth and Marlowe, who were was still pretty much dripping wet.
Annabeth showed them a few more places: the metal shop (where kids were forging their own swords), the arts-and-crafts room (where satyrs were sandblasting a giant marble statue of a goat-man), and the climbing wall, which actually consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders, sprayed lava, and clashed together if you didn't get to the top fast enough.
Finally, they returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.
"I've got training to do," Annabeth said flatly. "Dinner's at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall."
"Annabeth, I'm sorry about the toilets."
"Whatever."
"It wasn't my fault."
Marlowe had her arms crossed over her chest as she looked at Percy skeptically, and he realized it was his fault.
He'd made water shoot out of the bathroom fixtures. He didn't understand how. But the toilets had responded to him.
Percy had become one with the plumbing. Maybe Marlowe was right and he was Waterboy.
"You need to talk to the Oracle," Annabeth said.
"Who?" Percy asked, his brows knitted together.
"Not who. What. The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron."
"I would suggest not calling the sprit of Delphi a 'who'..." Marlowe trailed off. When she got a look from the others, she added, "What? I know my history. Got a problem with that?"
Percy turned and stared into the lake, wishing somebody would give him a straight answer for once.
He wasn't expecting anybody to be looking back at him from the bottom, so Percy's heart skipped a beat when he noticed two teenage girls sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier, about twenty feet below.
They wore blue jeans and shimmering green t-shirts, and their brown hair floated loose around their shoulders as minnows darted in and out. They smiled and waved as if Percy were a long-lost friend. He didn't know what else to do. He waved back.
"Don't encourage them," Annabeth warned. "Naiads are terrible flirts."
Marlowe bent over the railing, looking down at the naiads. They were beautiful. One looked up at her and smiled flirtatiously, making Marlowe blush. She waved back and started to go over the railing, but got pulled back by Annabeth before she could fall in.
"Naiads," Percy repeated, feeling completely overwhelmed. "That's it. I want to go home now."
"Why would you want to go home when a place like this exists?" Marlowe wondered, looking around her.
